Tuesday, July 19, 2011

I found a few cute and easy DIY projects that I want to try soon and thought I would share:

Hankie Table Runner | I was recently given some antique hankies and I thought this would be a great use for them (since I don't plan to blow my nose with them) | Found HERE on Country Living

Multi Vase Flower Centre Piece | So easy to do and a great country cottage look. I would use a variety of vases and maybe even some mason jars putting the tallest vases in the middle surrounded by the shorter vases in the front | Found HERE on Country Living

Button Lampshade | I saw this DIY project in a book I got from the Library, but here is a photo of what they look like found HERE

Button Initial | I found this in Pretty Cute Pink's Shop on Etsy, but you can find the DIY instructions HERE | Very simple to do and would look really cute in a kids bedroom.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Being my first year here in the city we decided to check out the Home County Folk Festival, and what made it even more of an enticing event was that my favourite artist, Hawksley Workman, was performing on Saturday night.

Here is a clip (not shot be me) of one of his songs from the night! A GREAT Concert!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I think it is awesome to support local artists instead of buying from large main stream companies and chain stores. So I thought I would do a feature on a few cute local shops that I came across on Etsy. Shopping local is already close to home, and now it can be even closer by shopping local ONLINE, from the comfort of your home office / computer desk!

Here are a few of the neat local online shops I have come across |

London Ontario's Fancy Cuts - They sell adorable iron on appliques for baby's onesies, children's clothes and more! My favourite items are the iron on ties for on little boy's onesies and shirts.

London Ontario's Neck Candy Collars - A neat shop for pet owners who love to stylize their pets in hip and colourful collars. My favorites are the bow tie and flower collars!

Kitchener Ontario's Merrily - A shop that is everything Retro! I LOVE her 50's style aprons, they are very affordable and would be a great addition to a retro bridal shower gift.

Kitchener Ontario's Hawt Home -This shop has beautiful throw pillows in it that are made with funky and vibrant fabrics. They even do custom monograms and words such as 'love' and 'home' and even 'Mr. and Mrs.' pillows making them a great gift option for weddings!

Kitchener / Waterloo Ontario's Craftabulous - She sells some really unique items. My favourite are her 'Love Measures' earrings and pins. She uses various colours of seamstress measuring tapes to make these items, they would be so cute to give to friends who love to sew.

Hamilton Ontario's Adeline's Attic Vintage - This shop has amazing vintage pieces all organized by decade. A great shop for anyone who loves wearing vintage or who is needing costume pieces for an event or photo session.

St. Catharines Ontario's Bombshell Blooms - She creates gorgeous hair flowers that would be great for any occasion and I think would be especially nice for bridesmaids to wear!

My Online Local Shop - KO Two Designs - A shop full of handmade wedding creations.

Do you know of any fabulous local online shops? Let me know about them n the comments area below - or post a link to your own online shop in the comments! It will be great to have a directory of awesome local shops for people's personal and gift buying needs!

Friday, July 8, 2011

I really wanted to have a small water feature on our deck as I love the relaxing sound of trickling water.

I looked up a lot of different tutorials and ways of making a fountain but a lot of them looked a little to involved, required tools that I didn't have, and were overall a bit too complicated for me, I just wanted to keep it simple.

So I purchased this lovely green terracotta pot at a local garden centre, (I even waited to get it for 60% off!) It had a small hole in the bottom for drainage to I also bought a tube of silicon and simply put a piece of tape over the bottom of the pot where the hole was an filled it with silicon.

I then purchased a simple 100amp pond pump from Rona that came with two different fountain nozzles - Bell and Trumpet. (Any higher amp would be too much, but a 50amp might also work depending on the size of the pot you have).

We placed two bricks that we had around the house in the bottom of the pot to place the pump on to make it the right height.

I then found 'Water Lettuce' which is the plant inside the water garden, for very inexpensive at another local garden centre.

You could also put a few feeder fish/gold fish in your water feature, they not only make it look nice and add to its style, but they also eat any misquotes that may try to use your water garden as a hatchery.

It was a really simple project and now we have the water garden on our deck that is lovely to listen to as we eat dinner outside.

Total cost around $45.00

The Two Different Types of Nozzles:

"Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as the water from a fountain. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass the fountain"Lao-Tze, Ancient Chinese Philosopher

I came across these awesome fingerprint guestbooks in Bleu de Toi's shop on Etsy

They are so unique and are a great interactive and personal way to get your guests to 'sign' your guest book.

They make beautiful custom pieces of art to hang in your home as well!

And there are many different styles that would suit multiple events, not just weddings.

Plus, let's be honest, these guests books also serve the very practical purpose of getting your guest's true identity up front in case one of them gets a little too rowdy and breaks a few things, you will be covered as you will already have their finger prints on hand! hehe

The Balloons and Bicycle style would be great for a birthday party guest book.

And I love the wreath idea as it would be great for a family reunion guestbook or to have at Christmas or another holiday for all the family to 'sign'.You could even then make prints of the original copy to share with family so that everyone had a copy.

"Befores" - Images of our home when we bought it

In Front Of Our New Home!

Wish List For Our Home:

Our New Home Songs |

This Blog is...

- A place to share inspiration for the decoration of the places we call home.

- A place to share the many little DIY projects and crafts that I am inspired to create.

- A space to place tidbits of things that I like, love and dream about.

- A place for family and friends to watch while we make our house into a home.

- A place to reflect on the 'befores' and 'afters'; an online scrapbook of memories and archives of our new home, "Browy" as we like to call it.

Comments or Questions?

Want one of your projects to be featured?

contact me at: ko2_photography@hotmail.com

A Little Bit About Myself

I am newly married to a wonderful husband and we love to work on projects in our new house. I love to decorate to make it into the warmest of homes! I am a graphic designer and photographer and thus I get to work from home! I recently graduated with my degree in Drama in Education and Society, a minor in Engligh Literature, and a teaching degree as well for the intermediate/senior level. I Love working with children and youth through drama and art! I am blessed to be able to pursue my passions as my career and to be able to blog about my experiences and projects on ‘The “Browy” Blog’! Wondering what “Browy” means?? It is the nickname that my husband and I gave our home..."Why" you might ask... well when we were house hunting it was hard to keep all of the listings we were considering straight, so when trying to save the listing for our home in my 'favourites' on the computer I meant to type "Brown" as the reference word for the house and instead I typed “Browy”, thus giving our home its forever title! Thanks for checking out my blog! Feel free to leave comments and share your ideas!

bk.ricker@hotmail.com

I'm a Featured Artist on Emmaline

I'm On Etsy |

Check out some of my home decor and wedding items on Etsy|

I'm a Photographer - Become A Fan of 'KO Two Photography' on Facebook |

I guess this explains why my blog isn't the greatest as my husband always has a full tummy!